Arsa

Masbedo Italy 2024 96 min

Uma Thurman
18 October 17:00 Teatro Studio Gianni Borgna Pub Acc

Festa del cinema

Synopsis

Eighteen-year-old Arsa lives at the edge of the world. The island she loves and has always lived on is a nature reserve and her job is to collect the rubbish that is washed up by the sea. Inspired by her father’s sculptures, Arsa remodels the objects that she finds, giving them a new life. Her days pass by in a time suspended between her universe of monsters and statues lost on the seabed and the humanity that she stares at from afar. When Andrea and his friends arrive on the island and invade her territory, the spell is broken...

COMMENTARY
The first feature-length fiction film by the artistic duo Masbedo (Nicolò Massazza and Iacopo Bedogni) is set on Stromboli, which has previously featured in some of their works and video installations. It is an extraordinary coming together of imagery and words (thanks to the collaboration with author Giorgio Vasta), with a complex construction, in multiple times and multiple places. Masbedo attempt a cinema that does not resemble anything else (even if the gaze is at times reminiscent of Stromboli, Land of God), is rigorously made for the big screen, and explores new ways of recounting through images.

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
This film comes from a memory that, as often happens, does not belong to either of us. Beatrice Bulgari, the producer of the film, remembered one of our works - Le Voeu - in which inside an aquarium a woman’s hand, having turned to stone, awaits pleadingly.
And she suggested: “Imagine if one day, swimming in the sea, you were confronted by an ancient statue.” To exorcise the anxiety that this image brings with it, as children usually do, together we created a story that is a mix of reality and imagination, in a timeless setting. Arsa is also a critical reflection on contemporary society and consumerism.

Director

Masbedo

Masbedo is an artistic duo composed of Nicolò Massazza (1973) and Iacopo Bedogni (1970). They have worked together since 1999 and currently live between Milan and Piacenza. Their work features the constant exploration and mixing of different artistic languages: video, installation, cinema, performance, avant-garde theatre and sound design. They have recently identified the relationship between cinema and art as a favoured area of investigation, which they approach with a careful look at both the socio-anthropological elements as well as the more intimate and poetic ones.

Cast and Crew

Screenplay:
Giorgio Vasta, MASBEDO
Cinematography:
Gherardo Gossi
Editing:
Jacopo Quadri
Music:
Davide Tomat, G.U.P Alcaro
Sound:
Simone Olivero
Production:
Eolo Film, Alcion
Co-production:
Rai Cinema
World Sales:
The Festival Agency
Cast:
Gala Zohar Martinucci, Jacopo Olmo Antinori, Tommaso Ragno, Lino Musella, Luca Chikovani, Giovanni Cannata, Michele Sinisi, Maziar Firouzi, Matilde Schiaretta

Festa del cinema

Screening Schedule (public)

18/10
17:00
Teatro Studio Gianni Borgna
19/10
15:30
Giulio Cesare - sala 1